Magnetic tape

Posted in | at 3/03/2011 09:35:00 AM

          Remember during the older days, we use cassette players to play our music? The magical black/brown long roll stuff in the cassette will be spun and run in order for us to hear the music. What is that exactly in the cassette tape?



          Magnetic tapes have been a major medium for recording music, video and data for decades. They include popular consumer products like compact cassettes and VHS video tapes, as well as professional reel-to-reel magnetic recording stock. Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic recording, made of a thin magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic. It was developed in Germany, based on magnetic wire recording. Devices that record and play back audio and video using magnetic tape are tape recorders and video tape recorders.  A device that stores computer data on magnetic tape is a tape drive (tape unit, streamer).


          


          Radios are usually equipped with a cassette player to play the content of the cassette, where as a VHS (Video Home System) player is to play VHS tapes. Even though this technology is old, it is still widely used in big commercial industries and recording purposes. They are tape drives in the market too, but mostly not for a normal consumer to use nowadays as it is slow and clunky. So what are the few advantages that magnetic tape holds?


     Capacity

  • One of the key advantages of magnetic tape is its capacity for holding data. Magnetic tape was the first medium able to hold a feature-length movie on a small, inexpensive device, thus enabling the home video market of the 1980s. In addition, compact cassettes can hold music on both sides, giving them a 90-minute total playing time, which is even greater than most CDs.



    •      Editing

  • Magnetic tape is also easy to edit using a traditional linear-editing system. This can involve duplicating a portion of a tape to a master reel, or physically cutting the tape and attaching the desired portions together with glue, splicing cement or adhesive tape. Editing in this manner requires no special computer equipment and may be less expensive and/or easier to learn than nonlinear digital editing.





    •      Storage

  • Magnetic tape are typically used for long term backups. They have generally cheaper storage per dollar.




    •            I hope this makes you nostalgic as I certainly feel that way when I researched on this. The advancement of technology has almost made this method of storage obsolete, but the amazing thing is magnetic tape in the entertainment and recording industry is still living on!

    Read Users' Comments (2)

    2 Response to "Magnetic tape"

    1. KLChua says:
      March 3, 2011 at 9:42 AM

      Back to the ancient era, it makes me feel like i'm young again as I used to listen to music and watch movies with all these.

    2. KiaoWei says:
      March 3, 2011 at 12:55 PM

      is it available in market now?

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